Westerners lose in 12th, fall further out of playoff contention

Richard Gregory

Updated 11:45 pm, Friday, July 26, 2013

DANBURY -- Time is growing short on the Danbury Westerners' playoff hopes this summer, and they wasted an opportunity to gain some ground on Friday night.

The Westerners couldn't hold a two-run lead in the eighth inning and dropped a 3-2 decision in 12 innings to the Vermont Mountaineers in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game at Rogers Park. Danbury has lost three straight and eight of its last 10 and is in last place in the Western Division, four games out of the fourth and final playoff spot with five games remaining.

"We've just got to get in," Westerners manager Jamie Shevchik said. "We've made a run at a championship before breaking out of the No. 4 seed, so it's not like we can't do it again. We're just not helping ourselves. Everybody else has been helping us by losing, and we can't help ourselves by winning games. That makes it extremely tough. They're losing and we're losing right along with them."

Spoiled in Friday's loss was a sparkling pitching performance by Westerners starter James Murphy, a sophomore at Fordham. Murphy worked seven scoreless innings, scattering five hits, walking one and striking out eight in what Shevchik called "his best start of the year."

Craig LeJeune relieved Murphy in the eighth and promptly recorded two quick outs. A two-out walk to Thomas Roulis proved costly, however, as he came around to score on Scott Donely's double down the left-field line. Donely then scored to tie the game when Danbury first baseman Alex Tuccio made an error on Mike Vigliarolo's sharp grounder.

Vermont took the lead in the 12th off Westerners reliever Jamie Pashuck. Mark Podlas drew a leadoff walk and later scored on pinch-hitter Kevin Krause's double that sailed over Daniel Spingola's head in center field.

Lejeune worked five innings and allowed one hit and one walk while striking out five. Pashuck pitched one inning and gave up two hits and a walk.

The Westerners stranded two runners on base in four different innings, including the 10th, when singles by Zachary Blanden and Tuccio put two on with one out and came up empty.

"Our pitching gave us a good opportunity to win the game," Shevchik said. "Today, it was a little bit of everything. We couldn't play defense, we didn't come up with the hit when we needed to, and 36 games in, we couldn't even get the signs right.

"We're putting way too much pressure on our pitchers by having to be almost perfect," Shevchik added. "That's what we're doing. They have to be almost perfect for us to win. They can't give up a run, because we're not scoring any and then we're kicking balls around defensively. We're not helping our pitching staff at all."

The Westerners got on the board first with a run in the second. Consecutive singles to start the inning by Alex Cruz, Jon Testani and Kris Simonton loaded the bases with no outs and Johnny Caputo followed with an RBI groundout. Nick Octavi went down looking for the second out and Spingola flew out to deep center field -- he didn't miss by much -- to end the inning.

The Westerners added a run in the fourth as Testani, a UConn junior and a former Masuk High standout, lined a single to center, took second on an errant pickoff throw by pitcher John Nasshan, stole third and scored when Nasshan made another throwing error after fielding a Caputo grounder.

Testani and Blanden each had two hits and a stolen base for Danbury.

Nasshan started and went seven strong innings, allowing seven hits and a walk while striking out seven. Hard-throwing reliever Brandon Alphin earned the win with 4 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and no walks while fanning seven. Robert Strader recorded the final two outs to earn the save.